Karina on SpoutBlog

Zack Godshall’s Low and Behold, which has been somewhat missing in action since premiering at Sundance 2007, screens tonight at Anthology Film Archives in New York before coming to DVD via Carnivalesque in November. Starring eventual Alexander the Last dreamboat Barlow Jacobs, who also co-wrote and produced, it’s a drama/documentary hybrid feature set in just-post-Katrina New Orleans that doesn’t always hold up in terms of narrative, but is always interesting in the frission between fact and embellishment. As I wrote when I saw it at Sundance:

Director Zach Godshall and co-writer/producer/star Barlow Jacobs incorporate documentary footage into a fictional tale of insurance adjusters in the devastated city. Jacobs plays Turner Stull, a blank-eyed young white guy who moves down to NOLA to evaluate storm damage under the tutelage of his carpetbagging uncle. Forced to traverse an unfamiliar city in which simple signposts and landmarks have been erased, making a living by delivering bad news to a seemingly endless stream of justifiably angry folks, Turner strikes up an uneasy friendship with an enigmatic black man named Nixon. This unlikely pair spends the bulk of the film driving around, attending to Turner’s insurance appointments and searching for Nixon’s lost dog. Their convergent quests may be a little too convenient, yet the set-up works. The actors, particularly Robert Longstreet as Turner’s uncle, are continuously engrossing, and the survivor interviews never fail to astound. Though less interested in mounting an investigation or assigning blame, Low and Behold is just as affecting as Spike Lee’s Where The Levees Broke–sometimes more so.

Low and Behold is the second feature on a bill that starts at 6pm. More info here.